S&S Northern Ltd

Chorley council case study

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S&S Northern Limited was formed in 1996 and has grown to become a market leader in its field offering the highest standards of service in the gas safety industry and offering the best products available to meet its clients’ needs.

The company now has a £2million turnover, has recently bought new premises in Buckshaw Village, employs nine people and now has plans to expand further!

S&S Northern’s name has become synonymous for its range of quality products throughout the UK and in Europe and its products are even installed in the kitchens in the Houses of Parliament!

The company designs, manufactures and supplies gas safety systems, predominantly for the commercial sector.

It supplies gas detection systems for boilerhouses and plant rooms which monitors and shuts off the gas in the event of a leak; panels for use in school and university laboratories to isolate the gas supply in the event of an accident; panels to monitor the ventilation system in commercial kitchens to prevent a build-up of potentially dangerous carbon monoxide fumes.

More recently, the company has been supplying combined natural gas and carbon monoxide detectors for the domestic market with one housing association supplied with 750 of the domestic units. These units mean that when of either of these gasses is detected at a level that’s approaching dangerous, the incoming gas to that area can be automatically shut off.

The people behind the business

Run by husband and wife team Steve and Sue McMahon, the business was originally set up at home by Steve who’d worked in the heating and ventilation industry for 38 years.

With the business expanding rapidly, Steve encouraged family members to join him, in particular his and Sue’s sons, to bring new ideas and ways of looking at opportunities. Their first son joined in 2002.

S&S Northern continually invests in training for every member of staff to ensure the customer receives the right product to meet their requirements at the right price and delivered on time. S&S Northern is committed to investing in research to improve its efficiency and the quality of its gas interlocking, gas ventilation and gas shut off systems and products.

Steve said: “We are proud of the fact that all our panels are manufactured in the UK.”

Why we chose Chorley

Steve said: “Chorley is a great position for use to operate from – we cover the whole of the country from here so the nearby motorway network is important. I don’t think we could have a better location to access the motorways from here.

“We are also now exporting to Europe and beyond so access to airports is important and again Manchester, Liverpool and even Leeds-Bradford airports are easily accessible from here.

“We put emphasis on bringing local people into the business and have two who have gone through apprenticeships at Runshaw College.

“Buckshaw Village is a great area to work. We’ve just relocated here after outgrowing our premises in Coppull.

“We found Chorley Council very helpful when moving to Buckshaw, we received a grant towards fitting out the offices and were really impressed with the enthusiasm we got when we made our initial call to Chorley Council. We’d wrongly thought that the council was interested only in retail and the town centre this was not the case.

“We find Chorley a great place to live and work with easy access to motorways, with a good mix of businesses and great people.”